On Thursday, November 21, Palestinian human rights activist
Amer Jubran, was released on the minimum legal bond of $1,500. The
date of the next portion of his immigration trial was set for February
20, 2003.

Jubran was arrested
for "violations of immigration procedures" at his Providence-area home
in the early morning on November 2 by the Immigration and
Naturalization Services (INS), in conjunction with the Federal Bureau
of Immigration (FBI), when he refused to submit to an FBI
interrogation without a lawyer. He spent the following nineteen days
in the Adult Correctionals Institute (ACI) in Cranston, Rhode Island,
where the INS rents cells.

At the hearing, Jubran's attorney of record, Nelson Brill, made the
case that Jubran was a solid member of the community. He presented
dozens of letters attesting to Jubran's character from many walks of
life, including Jubran's landlord, godmother, and employer, as well as
clergy and politicians like Boston City Councillor Chuck Turner, who
was present in the crowd. Jubran had about ten supporters inside the
courtroom with him, and about seventy overflowing into the hallway
outside. Judge Leonard Shapiro was impressed by Jubran's support,
saying "I don't see he's a danger to the community". The government
did not contest the bail setting.

The government, represented by Attorney John DeAngelo, outlined
portions of its case against Jubran. The case revolved around dates
on official papers submitted with Jubran's filing for permanent
resident status (a green card). The government argued that the
permanent resident status application listed one date for the papers,
but the papers had been notarized on a later date, and this was
evidence for fraud. Speaking to these charges, Shapiro said "I have
seen cases before where people have come in with [official papers]
blank on the bottom," suggesting that the government's evidence was
not strong that fraud had been committed.

After the hearing, Brill suggested that the initial filing of
unnotarized papers was a minor error on the part of Jubran's previous
lawyer. Furthermore, he said that the INS must have "combed over the
file for weeks" in order to spot this error. The timing of the
arrest, he continued, pointed to political reasons, coming three years
after Jubran was granted permanent resident status but only two days
after he led a downtown Boston rally with the New England Committee to Defend
Palestine (NECDP), an organization which Jubran co-founded. The
message the FBI wants to send to immigrants and activists, according
to Brill, was that you should stay silent if you want to be safe.
Brill also thought that the
large anti-war rally on November 3 may have played a role in the
decision to arrest Jubran.

Jubran was present at the hearing, escorted into the courtroom in
arm and leg shackles by six armed INS guards. Acting court
administrator Sandra Majia said that this trial was receiving more
security than normal, and suggested it was part in order to protect
Jubran. Jubran wore a jacket, and beneath it, a T-shirt with a
picture of a Palestinian flag and the words "Free Palestine!".

Six members of the media were in attendance, including
representatives from New England Cable News and WBUR radio.

When the proceedings finished, the Amer Jubran Defense
Committee, a group of friends and supporters, led a spirited,
cathartic rally of about seventy-five people in front of the John
F. Kennedy Federal Building where the hearing had taken place. As the
crowd shouted "Free, Free Amer Jubran" and "Free, Free Palestine!",
George Collins, a member of the Amer Jubran Defense Committee, said
that this INS regional office was "developing a reputation for
targetting Palestinians", citing the case of Jaoudat
Abouazza, a Palestinian Canadian detained for forty-one days
before being granted voluntary departure back to Canada.

The NECDP announced that Jubran and the rest of the committee would
continue their activism, starting with a picket at the Israeli
consulate at 5:30 PM on Monday, November 25, to protest the most
recent Israeli incursions into the West Bank and Gaza.

The author of this report has worked with Amer Jubran on various issues. Additional reporting by Aimee Smith.

Comments

Amer, like most people in the world, is well aware that the state of "Israel" is the most hazardous invention of the Anglo-AshkeNAZIs - a transnational empire directed primarily by the Bilderberg Group.

When I went to hear if my ex-mentor, Noam Chomsky, had anything refreshing to preach last night at Boston "University", his agents demanded 10 Federal Reserve Corporation debt-dollars for entrance to the "non-profit" (money-laundering) Chomsky show.

They also had a bogus "pro-Palestine" petition that slyly justifies the AshkeNAZI / World Bank occupation of Palestine.

I suggest Chomsky's handlers sell tickets, books, hats, T-shirts and other souveniers at Fenway Stadium. And perhaps we could enjoy a mud-wrestling match.com between Noam and Daddy Bush. (Will the Rothschields and Rockefellers finance this show as well?)

Since Chomsky's handlers don't like dissidents who reveal embarrassing episodes of history removed from "our" schoolbooks, they ordered a BU security guard to remove me from their private property.